Tuesday, June 19, 2012

After the Storm: Deck Tiers pt. 1

Hello there and welcome to another installment of 'After the Storm'. Vanguard has been together with us for a year and a half, and throughout the period it has undergone a lot of transformations. From the Trial Decks fight during the early days, until the 13k Vanguards of today, the game has seriously brought to us a lot of challenges when it comes to deckbuilding.

So you might wonder, where do the decks stand in the current metagame? That's why today's post will be a short analysis of the various decks available to us and I'll be diving them into tiers and adding in a short explanation as well. I'll be dividing the decks into 3 different tiers, and I'll try to cover all possible deck builds if I can.

Without further ado, this is my summary of where the clans stand now (bear in mind, this is a personal opinion, so it might clash with others' ideas). I'll break this article into a few parts, so that you guys out there wouldn't need to scroll for so long and get bored when reading. The first part is the current Tier 1 decks.

Tier 1


Kagero - Dragonic Overlord The End


Ah, the almighty DOTE. It's not surprising at all for it to make it into tier 1 because the deck is just that stable. Like my previous post about the deck, it packs board advantage, hand advantage, card cycling, high power count, all in one deck. Most of all, DOTE is one of the frequent tourney winners since it's release way back during BT-05. Even after Limit Break is introduced, DOTE still stays strong despite not having any sort of LB skill. The only thing that I'm not happy with? DOTE is too mainstream, basically wherever I play, I'm bound to see a few DOTE running around.
Rating: 4.8/5

Royal Paladin - Majesty Lord Blaster


The 2nd member of the Big 3. Same as DOTE, MLB wins tournaments non-stop like flowing water. Although it doesn't have as much goodies as DOTE, but they can pressure your opponent with the constant 12k, 2 Critical MLB boosted by one of the best boosters for RP, Toypoogal. Their tutoring abilities also are unparalleled, being able to tutor various different cards to form magic numbers at ease. MLB is also another deck that won't falter when facing Limit Breakers.
Rating: 4.8/5

Shadow Paladin - Phantom Blaster Overlord


The final member of the Big 3. This deck is what we call a power whore. In terms of power count, PBO won't lose to DOTE. Smashing a 23k, 2 Critical PBO in your face is not a joke. Furthermore, SP, like RP, has access to a Painter, which lets you Soul-in the missing PBD to ensure that PBO will always be 13k at all times. The only flaw the deck has compared with the other 2 members of the Big 3 is SP does not have much tricks, so its kin of predictable. But still, a good deck.
Rating: 4.5/5

Gold Paladin - Blond Ezel / Garmore

  

The new kid in town. This clan is meant to be the successor of Royal Paladins, so people will have expectations on how this deck will perform. Without letting anyone to be disappointed, GP instantly become a popular deck, and started to top quite a few tourneys in Japan. They function almost the same like RP, but with slightly less precision when tutoring, because they Superior Call randomly from the top deck instead of letting you search your deck for something you want. But what they lost is tutoring, they compensated it with insane power counts and cheaper Superior Call costs. Most GP units has a skill to increase their power, so forming magic numbers are the easiest for them compared to the other clans out there. Due to GP getting superb basic cards for their debut, they have instantly joined the ranks of tier 1 decks.
Rating: 4.5/5

Well, here you go, the decks that I personally think that is at Tier 1 for now. I might be wrong, but I would like to hear what you guys think about these 4 decks. Will anybody be able to join them as a tier 1 deck, or maybe replace them? Only time can tell.

Well, that's all for the moment. I'll get a new post done for Tier 2 decks soon.



10 comments:

  1. Don't see how PBO is Tier 1. I'd say more of a Tier 1.5

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    Replies
    1. PBO IS a Tier 1 deck. The stability it provides, and drawing power. In addition, a 13k Vanguard providing both excellent offensive and defensive power.

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  2. ^PBO is 13K, nuff said.

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  3. I 100% agree with your tier 1 list.

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  4. Gold Paladin 10k Vg definitely won't be in Tier 1.

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    1. Simply a 20k hit is enough to kill them. To be at Tier 1, they must have at least a good atk & defends.

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    2. Well, the reason I say that Gold Paladins are Tier 1 is because of their performance in tournaments, as well as their overall deckbuild. If they are not Tier 1, why do they keep on winning tournaments, especially big ones?

      I don't deny the fact that a simple 20k hit can kill them, but its not that it can't be prevented. Null guards? Timing of taking damage? This is how we all deal with magic numbers. If you can form three 20k lines without a sweat consistently (don't say DOTE, PBO and MLB, because they also need some set up to do that), then I really got nothing to say.

      And also, once they managed to survive the 20k attacks, they will hit you back with more. I define a deck lies on which tier by looking at their overall performance and synergy, not by looking at individual cards. A card does not make a deck.

      Just my opinions regarding to this, I might be wrong.

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    3. There is no right & wrong in Cardfight! Vanguard, just that my own opinion. I feel that to be in Tier 1, a deck have to be super strong compare with a normal deck. DOTE, MLB & PBO this 3 is over-power which give them more benefit compare with a normal 11k Vg deck. As we know, they're good in offensive & defensive as well.

      Yes I agree that Gold Paladin is strong, but I don't think they're ready for Tier 1. Because I do believe that there are a more powerful card coming out after lion, this is just a beginning of Gold Paladin. In my thought, Tier 1 consist of 3 extremely over-power clan. The rest of the deck haven't reach this level yet. So may be Gold Paladin is in top Tier 2? But I'm confirm, there is more powerful card coming after lion. This is bushiroad way to earn their money too.

      Stand Up! The Vanguard! Cheers.

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    4. Well, I definitely agree that there's no right or wrong in Vanguard. Maybe our perspective is different.

      Yeah, and I think Bushiroad won't stop pumping Gold Paladins anytime soon since it's a main character clan. But what I feel is Bushiroad better think carefully while designing the cards because although I like DOTE, I feel that Bushiroad had made a mistake by creating those 3 overpowered cards, and not giving boosts for other clans to at least to be close to their standard. Hopefully they won't overdo it again for GP.

      Well, you can definitely share any thoughts that you have here, I always welcome inputs. Cheers!

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  5. i think spectral duke dragon should be there. but that is my opinion. also tsukuyomi

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